Some 300,000 households and more than 88,000 business in Ohio have no access to broadband internet. Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are working together to find a cheaper way to bring high-speed internet to rural parts of Ohio.

The idea is for the state to make grant money available to pay for the expensive process of laying down the groundwork for broadband internet.

Democratic Senator Joe Schiavoni says high-speed internet can be expensive if the ratepayer also has to cover the cost of the infrastructure, which costs an average of about $26,000 a mile.